By Eleanor Crossey Malone The World Health Organis...

By Councillor Michael O’Brien While the headlines are full of the news of Ryanair flight cancellations (400,000 more passengers affected on the basis of the announcement on 27 September) what lies behind this crisis is the shameful treatment by Ryanair of its workers. The pilots at Ryanair have mutinied against their pay and working conditions. They deserve the support and ...

Socialist Party member and Solidarity TD Paul Murphy spoke out in defence of the rights of the people of Catalonia to decide their own future in the Dáil this week: “It is precisely democratic institutions that are under threat from the Spanish Government. It is the democratically elected regional government of Catalonia that has called the referendum which is a ...

By Stephen Boyd In the wake of last year’s “Brexit” vote and the demand of the Scottish National Party (SNP) for a second independence referendum in Scotland, Sinn Féin first and now the SDLP also, have raised the call for the holding of a border poll. Stephen Boyd outlines the socialist case for opposing a border poll and what’s needed ...

By Colm McCarthy THE DEATH of three homeless people in Dublin, Kildare and Cork in less than a week at the end of August/beginning of September is just the latest horrific illustration of the ongoing crisis in the country’s rental sector and the housing sector generally. The Peter McVerry Trust estimates that 13 fresh people became homeless everyday in 2016. ...

By Adrienne Harvey Fears that the Government’s More Affordable Childcare Scheme would increase the financial burden on parents have been realised. The subsidy of up to €80 per month was intended to help parents cope with rising childcare costs. However, some parents have already seen this potential gain wiped out after being notified of increases of €90 per month. This ...

By Kevin McLoughlin SUPPLY AND demand in the “free market” is supposedly the best way to produce what we need.“Free market” are just sanitised words for capitalism – production for profit. The pursuit of profit inevitably leads to economic inequality and as of June, five men owned the same amount of wealth as half the world’s population. Over the last ...

By Ruth Coppinger TD CRITICAL DECISIONS will be made on abortion rights in Ireland between September and December. An Oireachtas Committee of 21 TDs and Senators will adjudicate on the Citizens’ Assembly proposals. It will recommend to the Dáil what should happen regarding a referendum on the 8th Amendment and what legislation should follow. It’s vital that the entire ...

Sound System: The Political Power of Music By Dave Randall Published by Pluto Press, 2017 Reviewed by Darragh O’Dwyer As Jeremy Corbyn took to Glastonbury’s Pyramid Stage to address a crowd of tens of thousands predominantly young festivalgoers he looked surprisingly comfortable. “Do you know” he asked rhetorically, “politics is actually about everyday life?” This was perhaps the crowning gesture of an election ...

When I Hit You: Or, A Portrait of the Writer As A Young Wife By Meena Kandasamy Published by Atlantic Books, 2017 Reviewed by Grace Gageby (first published in Socialist Alternative, magazine of the Socialist Party) When I Hit You: Or, A Portrait of the Writer as A Young Wife, Meena Kandasamy’s second novel, has been described as both a ...